New help figuring our serving size on homemade recipe

asia1967
asia1967 Posts: 707 Member
in Recipes
Can anyone tell me how to figure out the nutrient counts on a recipe I use often. I entered all the ingredients, however it makes a huge batch. Is there an easy way to figure out serving sizes.

Replies

  • dlionsmane
    dlionsmane Posts: 674 Member
    You can weigh the whole thing then weigh your portion. then divide.

    Or divide it into portions right away, each portion is a serving.

    Depending on what it is... I will ladle soup into another container and count the number of ladles as servings. Then however many ladles I use is the number of servings I have.
  • DivineChoices
    DivineChoices Posts: 193 Member
    This is how I do it.

    1) Weigh the empty pot you're going to be making the dish in; write it down for safe keeping
    2) Prepare the dish, and weigh it
    3) Subtract the weight of the empty dish from the full one = weight of food
    4) Divide weight of food by the number of servings you have MFP set up to calculate

    This should get you a x amount of grams / serving. :)
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    Can you weigh the total finished product? That is what I would do. Then make the recipe 10 servings.

    If the total weight is 1555 grams, then 1 serving would be 155 grams. If you have 100 then you would have 100/155 = .64 servings. Or if you had 300 you'd have 300/155 = 1.93 servings.

    This is what I do. Note - I do modify the recipe each time, but I'd do that anyhow as my ingredients vary somewhat.
  • CountryGirl8542
    CountryGirl8542 Posts: 449 Member
    This is what I used to do when I was counting calories..

    Weigh your finished product and then divide it by say 10 servings (which you can put into mfp's recipie calculator) and then whatever that equals is how much you can weight out per serving. Then mfp will tell you how many calories per servings based on how many servings you want per batch.
  • unapologetically_crystal
    unapologetically_crystal Posts: 278 Member
    enter it in the recipe section on the app.

    add entry. dinner. click recipes. create a new recipe. name it. set servings to 1 (you will change it later). click + ingredient. enter EVERY item thats in it and how much to make the entire batch. then click serves and adjust it to how many plates you make out of it. (i actually weigh each container on a food scale or use measuring cups to spoon it in so that i can try to get the closest accuracy possible). and then click the check mark to save. then on your diary add from that recipe.

    i also will pretend to make a set amount of servings to know how many calories a serving can be considering i might want a set amount of calories.

    i hope i helped!!
  • huntergreene71
    huntergreene71 Posts: 21 Member
    I usually look at the total calories and divide it by "that's about how much of that I'd want to eat" without going over, say 400 calories.
  • kommodevaran
    kommodevaran Posts: 17,890 Member
    How big is a serving? That's up to you. How much do you need for that particular meal? If the batch is 2000 calories and you want to eat 500 for dinner, then you divide it into 4 servings.

    Or I misunderstood the question.
  • asia1967
    asia1967 Posts: 707 Member
    Thanks everybody. I will have to do that next time I make a batch. I am eating the batch that has been in the freezer. Good to know for next time.
  • gakette420
    gakette420 Posts: 107 Member
    I check how many cups I have made and make serving size one cup each. My boys usually have 2 servings while hubby and I have 1. Then if I have left overs I know that if i take 1 cup it is a serving. Most of my big batch meals serve 10-12. :)
  • klkoontz
    klkoontz Posts: 9
    I just made chili today and once it was done cooking and cooled a bit, I used my 1 cup measuring cup and measured out the portions into freezer bags to know exactly how many *1 cup servings* were in the pot.
  • gakette420
    gakette420 Posts: 107 Member
    Ooh, that is a great idea! :)
  • gakette420
    gakette420 Posts: 107 Member
    I just made chili today and once it was done cooking and cooled a bit, I used my 1 cup measuring cup and measured out the portions into freezer bags to know exactly how many *1 cup servings* were in the pot.


    oops I missed the quote button and hit the reply. ^^^^ that is a good idea! :)
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  • HeidiCooksSupper
    HeidiCooksSupper Posts: 3,831 Member
    A serving size is whatever you want it to be. I'm not saying that to be glib but to put you in the driver's seat.

    Let's say you make chili in a big pot and by recording the recipe, you know the pot has 3000 calories in it. To determine the number of calories in a single serving, you need to know two facts: how much is in the entire pot and how much is in a serving.

    Now comes a little preparation and a little arithmetic.

    Before you make the chili, measure the capacity of the pot by filling it to the brim with water. Let's say it's six quarts. There are four cups in a quart so a full to the brim pot would be 6 x 4 = 24 cups of chili. But, when you make the chili, you only fill the pot about 3/4 full. So, the number of cups of chili is about .75 x 24 = 18 cups of chili.

    Each cup of chili is therefore about 3000/18 calories or about 167 calories.

    Now, you decide how much chili you want, let's say 1.5 cups. 1.5 x 167 = about 250 calories for that serving.

    Yes, it would be more accurate to precisely measure the entire pot of chili and then do the division but sometimes you just want to leave the chili in the pot and throw it in the fridge -- so eyeballing how full the pot is can at least give you a good estimate.

    Now, why, you may ask, can't I just add up the ingredient amounts and use that as the total amount of chili? Well, because different foods behave differently when cooked. Put a quarter cup of sugar in a cup of hot water and stir. The total volume of the sugar water is not much more than the water alone, certainly not as much as 1 1/4 cups. On the other hand, cook one cup rice in 2 cups water and you get more than 3 cups of cooked rice as the rice swells to incorporate steamy and water. Since you are measuring the final product for a serving you must know the volume of the final product to know the calorie amounts in a serving.

    All this goes out the window is you are dividing the pot into equal servings. In that case, simple divide the total calories in the pot by the number of resulting servings.
  • supermysza
    supermysza Posts: 167 Member
    I weigh the whole batch in grams and I make that the number of servings there are in the recipe. So for example if one batch makes 300grams, I'd set it to say it makes 300 servings. That way the next time you just weigh your portion, eg. 15 grams, and say you had 15 servings.
  • tinkbaby101
    tinkbaby101 Posts: 180 Member
    I weigh the whole batch in grams and I make that the number of servings there are in the recipe. So for example if one batch makes 300grams, I'd set it to say it makes 300 servings. That way the next time you just weigh your portion, eg. 15 grams, and say you had 15 servings.

    This is what I do. When creating the recipe, I weigh the entire dish, and put the entire weight in grams as the number of servings. So 1 serving = 1 gram.

    Just make sure that you don't click "log it" from your recipe page, because you can't type in the number of servings. You have to save the recipe, and then go to your food diary. Add food > Recipes tab > Check the box next to your dish. Then type in the number of grams you're eating into the Qty field.
  • Bunnybeesweet
    Bunnybeesweet Posts: 165 Member
    I weigh the whole batch in grams and I make that the number of servings there are in the recipe. So for example if one batch makes 300grams, I'd set it to say it makes 300 servings. That way the next time you just weigh your portion, eg. 15 grams, and say you had 15 servings.

    I do this but I consider one serving/100g.
    that way I'm eating 1-3 servings instead of 100!
  • redheadmommy
    redheadmommy Posts: 908 Member
    As already mentioned , weighting it or counting how many cups are the way to go.
    I also highly recommend to put the definition of a serving in the dish name.
    Like homemade chili, 1svg= 1 cup or Homemade chili 1svg= 100g. Otherwise, in a few months you will forget what you actually meant by one serving.
  • tinkbaby101
    tinkbaby101 Posts: 180 Member
    As already mentioned , weighting it or counting how many cups are the way to go.
    I also highly recommend to put the definition of a serving in the dish name.
    Like homemade chili, 1svg= 1 cup or Homemade chili 1svg= 100g. Otherwise, in a few months you will forget what you actually meant by one serving.

    The only problem with counting cups as the serving, is that unless it's a liquid, one cup may weigh differently, depending on how packed it is. For accuracy's sake, having 1 serving equal a weight (like 100g like you mentioned) would be more effective.
  • gakette420
    gakette420 Posts: 107 Member
    As already mentioned , weighting it or counting how many cups are the way to go.
    I also highly recommend to put the definition of a serving in the dish name.
    Like homemade chili, 1svg= 1 cup or Homemade chili 1svg= 100g. Otherwise, in a few months you will forget what you actually meant by one serving.

    The only problem with counting cups as the serving, is that unless it's a liquid, one cup may weigh differently, depending on how packed it is. For accuracy's sake, having 1 serving equal a weight (like 100g like you mentioned) would be more effective.

    Each cup will weigh the same so either way is right. :)

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